The 1972 U.S.-Soviet ABM Treaty: Cornerstone of Stability or Relic of the Cold War?

INTERNATIONAL LAw AND WoRLD ORDER 213 (Burns H. Weston et al. eds., 2d ed.1990) (containing the text of the ABM Treaty, as advised for ratification by the Senate on August 3,1972, ratified by President Richard M. Nixon on September 30,1972, and entered into force on October 3, 1972).2. ABM Treaty, supra note 1, art.HI (a).The treaty also allows for one "offsite" missile shield to protect intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos.Id. art.III (b). 1 3. See Jack Mendelsohn, History and Evaluation of the Role of Nuclear Weapons in the Cold War, 31 CASEW.RES. J. INr' L. 609,614 (1999) (noting that "[alternatively, if defenses were left unconstrained, if one side in a nuclear deterrent relationship sensed that the other 787